


Dragon Princess

by Sweetlittlevampire



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, Character Study, First Meetings, Friendship, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 06:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18515734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetlittlevampire/pseuds/Sweetlittlevampire
Summary: A young princess, hidden away in her tower, would like to see more of the sun. Turns out the sun comes to visit her. A chance encounter, and the beginning of an unusual friendship.Aka how Ariana met Gellert, and the secrets they're both hiding.





	Dragon Princess

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissTantabis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTantabis/gifts).



He had appeared suddenly, without a warning – the boy from next door. She had been shy, not showing herself at all at first, but had grown increasingly more curious. He seemed intelligent, and friendly, and he was handsome – he reminded her of the hand painted image of a prince in one of her many fairy tale books. She hid herself well where neither he nor her brothers were looking for her; from her vantage point up the stairs she could see and hear most things without being noticed and still sneak fast enough back into her room when one of her siblings wanted to check on her.

Ariana Dumbledore was a hidden child. Sometimes she felt like Rapunzel in her tower, not allowed to leave, only to look at the world from a distance. She was loved by her brothers who protected her; however, she also knew that she was locked up so that others would be protected form her. For Ariana was not a simple princess – when the circumstances were right (or rather, _wrong_ ), she transformed into a dragon who had never been taught how to control its fire. It had scorched her mother to death, and so her chamber in her tower had turned into a cage and a prison at the same time.

She rarely met strangers. Whomever was invited to the Dumbledore household wasn’t introduced to her; she might as well have been a ghost. People met her by accident; either she had been careless or distracted and they had caught a glimpse of her, or they had visited on a whim before she had time to retreat to her room.

“Oh, this is Ariana, our youngest sister. She is mute and of poor health; most of the time she is resting, that’s why you haven’t seen her before.”

That was only half the truth – she could very well speak, but often chose not to when strangers were around, keeping up the myth that she was mute. It made it easier for everyone involved. She was already enough trouble for her brothers; there was no need to cause even more of it. As for her health – whenever that dragon fire inside of her burned too bright to be contained, she woke up bruised and injured and drained for days. She often felt tired and wondered if she would feel better if she was allowed to venture outside as often as her brothers did. The few times she was allowed in the garden while being supervised by her brothers definitely didn’t get her enough sunlight.

The sun seemed to shine a bit brighter when he was there. Perhaps it was the way the light reflected upon his golden curls, how it made his mismatched eyes light up like two precious gems; perhaps it was the way he made her oldest brother light up.

Ariana Dumbledore didn’t understand how love worked, or what caused it, but she recognised it when she saw it, even if she didn’t have a proper name for it.

To her, love had multiple names. Mama, Papa. Aberforth. Albus.

For the oldest Dumbledore, love had _his_ name.

_Gellert._

  
To her ears, it sounded like something golden, a tiny golden bell perhaps. When he laughed, it reminded her of honey, sweet and warm, and it reflected in Albus’ face. He was relaxed in Gellert’s presence, far more than usual; he laughed louder and longer. She liked seeing him laugh, especially since he had been crying so much after their mother’s death. He had tried to hide it, but she had seen.

Oh, the things she’d seen! If her brothers had known how often she had observed them from her various hiding spots, listened in on them whispering about things she was not meant to hear – they would have been so shocked. They also would have thought she wouldn’t understand, for they were talking about adult things. Ariana was still a child to them. With her fourteen years of age, she wasn’t exactly an adult either, but she didn’t consider herself an infant anymore, even if she didn’t really understand what being an adult entailed. She watched her brothers grow, go to school, become smart. They saw the world, they met people. She wanted to have that too – she could read and write, and sometimes she snuck into Albus’s room and stole one or two of his books to try and learn. Some things she understood, and she had a little makeshift notebook she had crafted out of folded drawing paper and string, in which she kept notes about whatever she was learning. At night she would often flick through it and look out of her window onto the cemetery and the woods behind it. She could smell the sea and wished to see it so badly; she then closed her eyes, and in her dreams, she travelled the world.

For the things she didn’t understand she would have needed guidance, someone to explain it to her – she didn’t dare to ask. Her brothers were most likely to fight over the matter, and she hated to see them fight. It hurt her heart, and in the worst incidents, woke the dragon within her. So she read those passages over and over again, in secret, trying to will some sense out of them, all while remaining the playful sweet infant her brothers wanted her to be. It was again easier, and she didn’t really mind; she liked being playful and sweet still.

She just wished for more. She wished she could simply get up, get out, and experience whatever was missing to her.

Perhaps what she had been craving so much had come to her, after all.

He stood in the Dumbledore garden, his golden hair now shining silver in the full moon’s light. He was smiling at someone at the back door; she shifted a bit and recognised Albus’ waistcoat. They were holding hands while talking, playfully intertwining their fingers. She vaguely recalled her parents acting similar when she was still a small child. The two young men were far too caught up in their own little moment to even think that someone could be observing them. Ariana saw the look in her brother’s eyes and decided she had seen enough. If Gellert was able to make her brother this happy, then she was happy too. She had observed him for so long; it was time to introduce herself.

The next day she sat on a chair in the living room, silently embroidering flowers onto what looked to be an apron. Aberforth was out looking after his goats; Albus sat next to her, engrossed into one of his books. He wasn’t even aware of her still being there when the now familiar knock on the door sounded through the room; his face split into a smile as he rose and answered the door. Gellert entered, and as long as the door was open, they kept up friendly, nonchalant chit-chatting in case one of the neighbours would come by and witness them.

Gellert was an alert person, and she had hoped he would be – he noticed her right away, and froze in surprise.

Albus seemed more mortified than surprised, but quickly regained his voice.

“This is Ariana…she is our sister. She’s often resting because of her health, that’s why you don’t see her that often.”

Gellert smiled politely, approached her, and bowed to greet her, as it was customary when introducing oneself to a lady.

“Good day, Ariana”, he said. “My name is Gellert; I am pleased to meet you.”

Albus opened his mouth.

“You don’t need to wait for a reply, she’s mu-“

“You are Albus’s friend, right?”

Albus stared at her for solid five seconds, his mouth still open, then closed it. Gellert looked at him and raised an eyebrow, then he looked back at Ariana.

“Indeed I am.”

She smiled.

“Then you are mine as well.”

 

She had not spoken to him afterwards. She had heard how Albus had tried to explain that she had experienced some sort of trauma, that they kept her hidden so that she wouldn’t get too scared, and that they maintained the façade of her being mute intact because she usually didn’t speak to strangers. He didn’t mention her being unable to perform magic, and if she did, it was uncontrolled and dangerous. She had however noticed him glancing upstairs to where the bedrooms were located, probably wondering if there was more to her than what Albus had been willing to tell him. She was a mystery, and Gellert Grindelwald fancied a good riddle.

Ariana fancied the moonlight, and so she snuck out after dark. She could have done it by daylight; she didn’t want to get neither herself nor her brothers in trouble. She never ventured far; the Dumbledore garden was her playground. She had found a spot near the apple tree from which she could observe the backside of the house while being perfectly hidden in the shadows. Albus had passed her countless times when he snuck away to the Bagshot’s house. Gellert had passed her just as often when he had come to give her brother a late-night visit. She liked to observe them when they said their goodbyes; she knew what was happening there was very private and intimate, and she felt a bit guilty for observing them, but she saw how happy they both seemed, and her heart was filled with warmth.

She retreated back into the shadows of the tree as soon as Albus had closed the back door and Gellert was on his way home; she must have somehow moved the tree a bit, for she had startled a tawny owl sitting in its crown, now flying up and screeching in protest.

Her eyes darted at Gellert, his eyes found her. Both of them froze.

He slowly, carefully, walked towards her, trying to make as little noise as possible. She still sat there, observing as he crouched down before her.

“It’s late, and it’s cold; what are you doing here, Ariana?” he asked her softly.

She had expected a scold, as her brothers would have done; hearing that his tone was more inquisitive she relaxed a bit.

“I like to look at the stars”, she replied. “They are prettier seen from here than from my window.”

Gellert looked back at the door at which he had wished Albus good-night with a fast but nonetheless passionate kiss, clearly wondering how much exactly she had seen.

“Will you tell Albus that you found me outside?”, she carefully asked.

He seemed to think about it for a while.

“I won’t.”

She smiled, and a hint of the witty Dumbledore smile made its presence known on her features.

“Then I won’t tell either.”

Gellert’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something. She cut him short.

“I’m too young to understand anyways; I surely would not know what I’d be talking about. So why say anything?”

She plucked an evening primrose who was just about to close its petals, and handed it to Gellert as a gift.

He looked at her, his eyes sparkling. Something about her had piqued his interest, and so he took the flower and extended his hand.

And so the dragon princess in her tower and the golden prince with the mismatched eyes shook hands upon an unspoken promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo, this is my very first fic on here...it's short, and I'm super mega hyper unsure about it. I'm usually more of a fan artist, but lately felt the urge to write. I have to extend my thanks to  MissTantabis for encouraging me to write - I have been roleplaying with her as Gellert and myself as Ariana for a while now over on tumblr, and she thought I should give it a shot. So I did, and I dedicate this piece to her.
> 
> My characterisation of Ariana is a bit unusual in the sense where I don't see her as someone who necessarily became mentally stuck at age six after what happened to her; she still suffers from that trauma and it affects her behaviour, and while she is still very childish and shy and sweet, she's also fourteen years old, and would like to know as much as an average fourteen year old, something that seems impossible to her at this point in her life. This way of exploring her character is not everyone's cup of tea, and I get that; however, it opened some interesting doors storywise, and I learned much about her and how I see her as the person she is, and the person she could have been.
> 
> Critique is welcome. I want to point out that Englsih is not my first language, just in case something sounds awfully off.


End file.
